"Hello! I regret to see that my examples in Secrets have left you confused.
Except when they specifically refer to each other (by place or character) the examples are NOT linked. Nor do they necessarily refer to other sections of the rules. Each was intended to illustrate a specific mechanic. Do not waste time trying to figure outgow they fit together,
The two examples on p230 are not of the same hypothetical world. The populations and areas are different for each. As per the table on p230, domains of the same general name (exarchate, county, whatever) can vary widely in size, area controlled, and number of vassals. For instance a kingdom (exarchate) can have 334,000 to 2,000,000 families.
As far as where the unexplored space would go: In the case of a huge empire of 1,130 hexes, there would not be a lot of unexplored space. You would have a narrow strip or small region, of about 70 hexes, as you said.
An example of how such a map might look would be like GRR Martin’s Westeros, with the areas north of the Wall as the unexplored part. The regional map for such a campaign would be an area bisected by the Wall. Note that this still plenty for the regional map, which needs only around half to two-thirds that to meet the target of 600 unexplored 6 mile hexes.
If you wanted more wilderness overall, you would just make the empire or kingdoms on the campaign map smaller. You could have two small empires of 286 hexes each, surrounded by 600 or more hexes of wilderness, for instance.
As far as the discrepancy between the number of urban settlements calculated in the example (1 city, 4 towns, 24 small villages) versus the number I suggest you include among points of interest (15), please note this guideline: “When placing urban settlements on the map, the Judge can safely ignore Class IV and smaller settlements on the 24- mile campaign map, and Class VI settlements on the 6-mile hex regional map.” The small villages are all Class VI and by default wouldn’t even be placed on the map. The Judge would thus place the city, the four towns, and then the location of ten other places he thinks are interestimg. Maybe a starter village, or some important strongholds, etc.
I agree that this is an area of the rules that could have stood to receive more detailed and integrated examples. I think in later rule books I did a better job with providing more examples. I hope that this has helped clear things up. Let me know if you have further questions!
As far as Land Revenue, I have always handled it at the level of the 6-mile hex; or for NPC domains, at the level of the entire domain. Having adventurers (players) attempt to exploit it on a square mile by square mile basis is not something I would permit as Judge. If I had forseen that this would be emergent behavior from the RAW, I would have slightly re-written the rules, and it is something I would clear up in a hypothetical second edition.
There are some good threads on the Autarch forums about alternative ways to handle assigning land revenue, which I highly recommend."
